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What’s new? How much does it cost? And how does it perform? Hannah Holden brings you the low down on TaylorMade’s new Stealth 2 Plus driver
The Stealth 2 Plus driver is the low-spin model in the new Stealth 2 driver family. So how does it perform? You can find out in our TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus driver review.
This is a great all-round driver with an excellent balance of long carry distance and tight dispersion.
It has a neutral ball flight and is very workable which is great for better players.
PROS
CONS
This is a seriously good-looking golf club. Straight away I loved the addition of the red ring at the back of the club head and love the colour pop it adds to the whole design.
TaylorMade have absolutely nailed how this club looks over the ball. They’ve transitioned from a matte crown to a gloss finish and although a nightmare to photograph, it looks stunning.
They have also updated the looks of the club’s face due to tour player feedback. It is lighter and more tonal and frames the ball even better.
The alignment aid has also been redesigned to shape the topline better and make it sit more square behind the golf ball. Overall the compact shaping of the golf club behind the ball really suits my eye.
I first tested this golf club in Dubai at the launch of TaylorMade’s 2023 product range. I was fitted into a 9° club head, and the initial data was seriously impressive. So I was excited to get it out for more thorough testing and the all-important trip to the golf course.
Lots of people don’t know what to expect from a carbon faced and wonder if the sound and feel will suffer but I actually really like how fast and powerful this feels off the club face.
This meant to be the least forgiving model in the Stealth 2 driver line-up. But I found I could swing this as hard as I want and still really control the dispersion.
I found last year’s Stealth drivers a bit too spinny, so I was pleased to see a lower amount of spin. I would say the spin was quite inconsistent from shot to shot though.
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The dispersion was one of the smallest I have tested, and this was on course data which is seriously impressive. You can see the grouping is just right of the target line and I would say this is a pretty neutral or if anything, slightly fade bias model.
There are lots of factors helping with that tight downrange dispersion including the 60x carbon twist face and the inverted cone technology in the club face.
This club head features a sliding weight track which can be used to help influence your shot shape. I tested moving the weight to the heel to straight out the flight more, which worked but I didn’t like how this affected the feel. Because mass was moved away from the back of the sweet zone, centre strikes didn’t feel as good when the weight was moved out of the neutral position. I also got slightly faster ball speeds when the weight was centred behind the sweet spot as it helped me get the most efficient energy transfer.
So how did it compare to last year’s Stealth Plus model?
TaylorMade are claiming their 2023 Stealth 2 models are 1.5mph faster than the previous Stealth. In my testing, I saw a 1.1 mph increase in ball speed which led to a 6.3-yard increase in carry distance.
Other noticeable data differences were a 260 rpm drop in spin and an extra 9.6ft of height on my ball flight.
When you look at the numbers, the big thing that jumps out at you is just how tight the dispersion was with the Stealth 2 Plus. The long right shot with the Stealth Plus is probably an anomaly in terms of direction but I didn’t want to exclude it as it had a great carry distance.
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Overall I really enjoyed testing this driver. Perhaps it wasn’t as long in the UK and Europe as I saw in Dubai, but it was seriously consistent.
To test this product we travelled to West Cliffs a leading European golf course just North of Lisbon. The idea was to get some warmer weather and escape our frozen British courses. It of course rained, a lot, was very windy. Each of our test team were allocated a category of golf clubs, fairways, or a specific type of driver or iron.
We gathered data on a Trackman 4 or FlightScope. We used Titleist Pro V1 for all tests. The samples we have are either fully fitted for our testers or ordered in our assumed specs. We are then able to optimise performance by swapping shafts and playing with the adjustability. As well as that dry testing all of the product was tested on course in a comparative environment with other product from the same category. We recognise that no testing process is perfect and just aim to be fair in our treatment, transparent in our process and candid in our feedback.
Available: now
RRP: £529 / $629
Lofts: 8°, 9° & 10.5°
Shafts: Mitsubishi Kai’li Red 60(X, S, R) and Project X Hzrdus Black (Gen 4) 60 (X/6.5, S/6.0)
Grip: Golf Pride’s Z-Grip Plus 2 Black/Red
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